Prince Harry protected gay soldier: Book

London: Britain`s Prince Harry intervened to prevent a soldier under his command being beaten up in a homophobic attack, according to a new book.

Trooper James Wharton, who is openly gay, writes that he was confronted by "six extremely angry infantry sergeants" who accused him of spreading rumours about one of their soldiers.

According to a report in the `Sunday Times`, Wharton was serving as a gunner in the Household Cavalry during a training exercise in Canada when he told the prince he was "about to be murdered".

"I climbed into the turret and talked Harry through exactly what had happened," he writes in his book `Out in the Army`.

"I didn`t hold back, I told him everything that had gone on. I couldn`t stop the tears welling up in my eyes.

He said: "Right, I`m going to sort this s*** out once and for all. Harry climbed out of the tank and started having a go. I worried he was about to make the whole thing worse, but he wasn`t holding back.

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Prince Harry was sticking up for me and putting a stop to the trouble. I had been on track for a battering and had been rescued. He came back 10 minutes later and told me the problem had been `sorted`," he adds.

Wharton came to public attention in 2009, a year after the incident, when he became the first openly gay solder to appear on the cover of `Soldier`, the official British Army magazine.
Wharton says that at his first meeting with the prince in 2007, Harry "looked at a photograph of me and my boyfriend on my barrack room wall - and told me we looked good together".

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the claims in the book.
The ban on gay people serving in the British armed forces was lifted in 2000.
In the book Wharton also claims the prince disclosed details of his sex life to him and another soldier.

"Harry told us both an extraordinary tale about the first time he`d had sex. It was fascinating."